Mortgage insurance

[Adam St.John]

Hi, Everyone.

I am currently looking to refinance my current ARM mortgage(within the next month and a half).

I have a question about avoiding the Mortgage Insurance premium.

This is our main home, bought two years ago, as a Hud repo. I think we got the house at a 10% savings over market value at the time.

I understand you have to have 20% equity to avoid MPI. Should I have an appraisal done before we look for financing, because in my experience, an appraisal done by the finance company always comes in at the loan value.

I am not looking to cash out I just want to avoid the $100 monthly tacked onto my mortgage.

Any help is greatly appreciated.